Goodbye, My Love
by lorelai15
Summary: Nigel gets a job offer. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I dont own anything

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"Nigel, you can't leave!" Claudia exclaimed, jumping up from her chair.

"Will you keep your voice down!" Nigel said glancing towards the door.

"You can't just take off! What are going to tell Syd? You can't just walk in and say something better had come up and you're leaving in two days. Do you realize how soon that is?"

Nigel lowered his head and sighed. His gaze turned to Sydney's office and lingered there. "I' ve made my decision, Claudia."

"No! I am not letting you leave!" She was now standing directly in front of him with her hands on her hips. " I'm not going to let you run away."

"I'm not running!"

"Yes you are! I have told you a million times just tell her how you feel."

" I can't. You know that." Claudia had caught him watching Sydney one afternoon in the office and after a few days of her constantly taragating him about it, he broke down and confessed to her. Since then she hadn't stopped trying to get him to tell Sydney about his feelings. "I have told her and everytime she shot it down faster than I could get the words out of my mouth. It's time for me to move on. To let go. Please try to understand that and respect my decision." Her looked her in the eye pleading with her. "Please." She dropped her hands as a sign of defeat.

"Alright, but I'm not happy about this and I am going to miss you. You have to promise to stay in touch."

"I promise." Nigel leaned forward and hugged her. Sure they'd had there squabbles now and then but when it counted they had always been there for each other. There relationship had developed over the last five years. They had started out with a slight dislike for each other. But over the five years he had been working at the university, they had grown to respect each other and the respect grew to friendship. They had an almost brother sister type relationship. They still faught but it was more just for fun then out of annoyance for each other.

They released each other and had started to walk back to their desks when Sydney walked in.

"Any messages, Claudia?"

"No." Claudia replied looking at Nigel, who was pretending to work at his desk.

"Okay. Nigel, did you finish the research I asked you to do?" Sydney asked while standing in the doorway of her office.

"Yes, it's on your desk." Nigel replied, keeping his eyes on the papers in front of him.

"Thanks." Sydney walked into her office and shut the door. Nigel leaned back in his chair, sighed and looked at the door where Sydney had just disappeared into. He didn't have to worry about Sydney seeing him, the blinds were closed. He knew he had no choice but to tell her today.

"Tell her. Now."

"Claudia!"

"You know that if you don't do it now you're not going to do it until tomorrow and I am not going to let you do that!" Claudia told him while pulling out of his chair and over the Sydney's door. "Do it. Now."

"Fine!" He walked the last few steps to the door, took a deep breath and opened the door.

Nigel poked his head inside the door. "Sydney?"

"Ya" She replied looking up from the research she had been reading.

"I need to talk to you."

"Come in." She told him. She noticed something was off. Usually he didn't need an invitation, if he wanted to talk to her he would knock then walk in before she answered and sit down.

Nigel sat in the chair across from her desk and started fidgiting. She could tell he was nervous about something.

"Ummm." He paused and started to rub the back of his neck. Sydney immediatly recognized it as one of his nervous habits, he was definately nervous about something, but she stayed quiet and let him talk.

Nigel took a deep breath and said, "I got a job offer, back in England and you know it's sound really great. I mean, great pay, great hours, great place. It's at a museum. It's just a really good offer and uh..." Sydney stood up and walked over to her filing cabinet and open one of the drawers, her back to him. "And um." She slowly closed the drawer, trying to prolong from saying what deep down she knew he was about to say. "I've decided to take it." The drawer closed. Sydney never moved she just closed her eyes. Every day for five years, Sydney had walked into the office fearing that that would be the day he would tell her he was leaving. That day had finally come.

Nigel noticed that she hadn't moved, but continued anyway. "They want me to start right away. So, I leave in um two, two days. Which also means that today is my last day here." All Sydney did was cross her arms and lower her head. Nigel didn't know what to do. He wasn't used to a silent Sydney Fox. "Please, say something." he pleaded with her. "Sydney?" She couldn't turn around. She wanted to. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him he was doing the right thing and that it did sound like a terrific offer and there was no way he could turn it down. But, she knew all it would take was one look at him and she would be telling him not to go, not to take the job, not to leave. She couldn't do that to him.

"I'm sorry it's short notice. But they need me right away, so I don't have much of a choice." He told her giving one last attempt to try and get her to turn around and say something to him. But still, she didn't move.

He sighed and stood up, walked the few steps to the door and turned the doorknob. With his hand still on the doorknob, he turned and said, "Syd, It's been a pleasure." and with that he opened to door and walked out.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Sydney turned around just in time to see the door close behind him.

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Review please 


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